Does my electric guitar affect my sound?

Table of Contents

Introduction

I’m Kevin and I’m here to help you answer the question “Does my electric guitar affect my sound if I’m using the same guitar effect pedals and amplifier?” The short answer is: yes – it very much does. Through this article I’ll explain the long answer: exactly why changing your guitar, or components of your guitar, is going to impact your sound.  Factors such as the type of wood, the pickups, and the strings you use all impact your sound. I’ll walk you through each of these in greater detail below.

But first – how am I so confident in my response and why should you trust me? I’ve lived this question firsthand: I spent a decade and a half as a beginner guitarist. For the majority of that time I had only two guitars – an Epiphone Les Paul Standard and an Alvarez Professional Folk Acoustic-Electric. I never had to spend any time thinking about whether the guitar I was using had an impact on my sound because those were my only options.

In early 2020 I paid off all my student loans and picked up a brand-new Gibson Les Paul Classic – the guitar I thought was my dream guitar. The fine gentleman at Guitar Center told me it was going to be perfect for me because I was also looking at a Fender Telecaster. The Les Paul Classic has dipswitches in the volume and tone knobs, which allow you to access the coil tapping on the pickups (more detail on this to come). Essentially, I could change from the classic humbucker sound of a Les Paul to a single coil sound like a Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster.

Over the next few months as I went down the guitar gear rabbit hole with my newly freed up capital, I was interested in expanding my guitar repertoire. My cousin encouraged me to try a single coil guitar – a Telecaster. I bought a Fender Player Telecaster and set out to A-B test with my modest rig – A Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb, Electro-Harmonix Soul Food, Boss Blues Driver and Carbon Copy Delay. I kept the settings the same and compared the single coil setting on my Les Paul Classic with the Telecaster and found out… They were NOTHING ALIKE.

Part of me felt duped by the Guitar Center Salesman, but after some soul searching, I reasoned the gentleman had no idea I’d go on to buy/sell/trade over a dozen guitars in the next two years. All in the quest of finding the right tone. Below is everything I learned in my adventure (so far).

What are the components of the guitar that affect my sound?

The three most impactful components of an electric guitar that impact your sound

1. The guitar body material
2. The pickups
3. The Strings

How does the guitar body impact tone?

Welcome to the Great Tonewood Debate! If you look across the wide wide world of the internet you’ll probably find some doubters that the material of your guitar impacts your sound. These people, in my opinion, are off their rockers. Of course the material makes a difference!

I’m going to take off my musicians hat for a moment and return to my engineering education to pontificate about material science for a moment. If you think about the construction of a table for and consider two tables were made to the exact same specifications except that one is made of pine versus mahogany: Would you expect if you rapped your knuckles on each of those tables, would the sound be the same? The answer is a resounding (pun intended) NO! Each material has its own properties, including sonic properties – these properties translate to the guitar as well.

In much the same way as you rap on two different tables, plucking the string on two different guitars is going to yield different results – the resonant property of the wood is going to be present when your pickups carry your signal through your guitar pedals and into the amp.

Now to throw a wrench into the tonewood debate: Some guitars are not even wood! In my personal collection I have a 1960’s catalog guitar that has a fiberglass body and a Danelctro guitar with a Masonite top. Jack White used a fiberglass bodied guitar during his tenure with the Whitestripes and Danelctro guitars were featured heavily in 1990s rock and pop songs. Non-wood guitar materials usually lead to a bright and clear sound while traditional woods provide a warmer, thicker tone.

Each material has its own properties that it contributes to the overall guitar sound.

A non-exhaustive guitar body material primer:

Woods

• Alder – resonant with a balanced tone, clear low, mid and high ranges.
• Swamp Ash – sweet and/or airy, melodic high ends
• Mahogany – Warm and rich with natural sustain
• Maple – Bright tone in the high end and muted mids
• Rosewood – Warm and rich low and mid with bright high end
• Basswood – fat, well balanced tone
• Poplar – balanced tone
• Walnut – Warm and rich, more mid presence than maple

Alternate Materials

• Acrylic – Bright and clear, lacks warmth and resonance of traditional wood bodies
• Aluminum – Bright and clear, and well… metallic
• Fiberglass/Masonite – Bright and jangly

How do pickups affect guitar sound/tone?

Pickups are the component of the electric guitar that sends a signal from the guitar through your signal chain to your amplifier or audio interface. Pickups “Pick up” the vibrations of a plucked string on your guitar using one or more magnets set in a bobbin (fancy word for pickup house) wound with conductive wire to create an electric signal, which is sent through your guitar cable into your effect pedals, amplifier, or audio interface and ultimately processed into sound waves.

While pickups all work by the same principle, the construction and configuration of said pickups can have a dramatic effect on the sound your guitar makes. There are three common types of pickups

Common Pickups

1. Single Coil – the original pickup. The standard Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster pickup. Called a single coil because of a single bobbin inlaid with magnets and wrapped with a coil of conductive wire. Single Coil pickups often have a humming quality, called 60-cycle hum, as they easily pick up electric interference.
2. Humbuckers – The humbucker was designed to counteract 60-cycle hum, hence the name “humbucker”. Humbuckers are two single coil pickups, the second coil cancels out the noise of the first. If you see an uncovered humbucker you will notice it looks like two single coils mushed together. Often times there is a plate covering them, giving them the look of a solid metal rectangle. Humbuckers have a warm and full bodied tone, and often have a higher output – i.e. they are louder.
3. P90 – If you put P90s on a spectrum, with one end being single coil and the other end being humbuckers, this third type of pick up would sit comfortably in the middle between the two. P90s have a higher output than single coils with a little more grit, but without going so far into the thick and warm territory of the humbuckers. While technically a single coil in terms of construction, the bobbin tends to be larger, around the size of the rectangular humbuckers. Often called “soap bars” due to the ivory-colored rectangles.

Uncommon Pickups

1. Active – The three common types of humbuckers are what you would consider “passive”, not requiring a power source to produce a signal. Active pickups use a battery powered preamp to produce a higher output, more consistent tone. These pickups are often used in metal and a variety of its subgenres
2. Piezo – Most commonly found in acoustic guitars, piezos pick up vibration through the strings contact with the bridge, resulting in a bright clear tone. Used on an electric guitar you will get the bright clear tone similar to an acoustic
3. Lipstick – These pickups popularized in Danelectro guitars are single coils housed in a unique tubular metal casing, looking like a lipstick tube.
4. Filter’tron – developed by Gretsch Filter’trons are a modification of a humbucker that creates a clear and twangy tone, not typically associated with humbuckers.

How do strings affect guitar sound?

Strings are a guitar component every player thinks about, but many consider playability without thinking about the impact to tone. The five considerations to a strings impact on sound are: Material, Gauge, Winding, Coating and String Core.  We’ll cover each component and its contribution to tone.

Material

• Nickel-plated steel – the most modern and common type of electric guitar string material. Found in the ever-popular Ernie Ball Slinky
• Pure Nickel – Pure nickel offers a warm sound, often associated with vintage tones. While less common these days, pure nickel strings can be found by manufacturers looking to provide vintage player experiences. Vintage reissues from a variety of brands as well as the Pure Blues brand are types of pure nickel strings.
• Stainless Steel – These strings deliver the brightest tone of the traditional electric. Stainless steel strings are the most resilient of the many varieties. Commonly available as flatwounds (more on that below) Stainless steel strings are corrosion resistant and should be considered if you don’t plan on changing your strings often.
• Bronze and Phosphor Bronze – Bronze strings are bright and clear, favored on acoustic guitars. Phosphor bronze provide a bit more warmth and darkness.
• Nylon – Warm and mellow, think classical guitar or the more upbeat mariachi sound.

Gauge (string size)

Gauges of string are measured in thousandths of an inch. When I say I play 10’s, I am saying the smallest gauge string I play is .010 inches thick. String size changes the tone you make with your guitar, not only because of the size but how you interact with the strings. Lighter gauges lend themselves towards easier bends and easier fretting. Thicker gauges are harder to press and bend, which means the notes you fret will be more consistent. If I play 8’s or 9’s I have a tendency to press down too hard and press the note out of tune. You’ll find the right gauge for you over time, I recommend trying different brands and sizes until you find the right strings for you.

• Light – Typically 8’s and 9s on the high strings and no more than 44’s on the low string.
• Medium – 10’s are considered medium gauges, and some thinner sets of 11’s. Some companies, like Earnie Ball will offer hybrid sets that have “heavy” low strings for meatier riffing and lighter high strings for easier bending during solos.
• Heavy – 11’s plus – tougher to fret and bend, but offering clean notes. Also useful for dropped tunings – where light strings wouldn’t not have enough tension hold a nice tone.

String Winding

Guitar strings have two components – a core wire and a winding wire, which is wound around the core. There are three offerings of winding – Round, Flat and “half wound” or “half round”. Typically only the three lowest strings are wound for electric guitars.

• Roundwound – The standard electric guitar string. A round wire wound around a round or hex core (more on cores in a moment). Most modern guitar sounds are going to use round wound strings,
• Flatwound – Flat wounds are favored for a more vintage tone – and many string companies “vintage” offerings are flat wounds. The wire wrapped around the core is “flat”, think like a really thin sheet metal wound around the core. The string will feel less textured than roundwound, and lends itself well to blues and jazz.
• Halfwound/Groundwound – Somewhere in between flat and round, certainly the least common winding of strings. Half rounds are common for bass guitars and favored among some jazz musicians.

Coating

Some guitar strings are coated to increase playability and durability. The coating will have some effect on the sound of your guitar.

• Non-coated – The standard for the majority of players. We will say this is the baseline for tone.
• Coated – coated strings are usually easier to play, due to reduced friction. They are also resistant to corrosion and oxidation, allowing for the string to sound true for longer.  Coated strings also reduce finger squeaks as you move up and down the strings. I have found coated strings often provide a slightly less bright tone.

Core

The core wire of the string will impact your tone, and should be considered when selecting the right string for the job.

• Round Core – Round cores have been found in stringed instruments through the majority of history, including piano wires. The entire winding is going to be in contact with the core creating a thicker, higher output
• Hex Core – A modern innovation in string construction – the hex core has six points that bite into the string winding. Because of the hexagonal shape of the core wire – not all of the winding is in contact with the core. The space between the core and winding produces a brighter tone than a round core.

Conclusion

Between the guitar material, pickup construction and string choice, you can see there are many factors that could cause your sound to change by using different guitars with the same equipment – amps, pedals, cables, etc. Each item individually may not have a huge impact on sound, but when you start changing lots of items at once, it can be overwhelming to figure out what is the optimal component for each guitar.

I recommend starting small. Start by playing new strings every few weeks. See if the gauges or materials make a noticeable impact to you. Stick with what you feel sounds best – there is no right or wrong answer.

If you are looking for a new sound or inspiration, buy a new set of pickups, and have your local luthier or guitar tech swap them out for you. Record the same song with each type. You can get a lot of different tones out of the same guitar by switching some components. Play around with your set up and enjoy a new bevy of sounds.

Now quit reading and go play!